a star other than our own sun. they re circling an ultracool dwarf star called trappist one, located about 39 light years away from the sun. astronomers detected three others in the system last year using nasa s spitzer space telescope. the planets are thought to be capable of having oceans, increasing the likelihood of life. the full report has just gone live on the website of international science journal nature. bbc science editor david shukman explains why this discovery is so exciting. what this latest report does is look ata what this latest report does is look at a particular star about a0 or so light years away, it is quite faint, much smaller than our sun, so it is quite easy for astronomers to look at, they have watched it very, very carefully over a number of years and seen a slight dimming in its light ona seen a slight dimming in its light on a regular basis. that tells me something is coming in front, planets. they have identified seven worlds orbiting this di